


Cardinal Directions all Pointing to the Past

by AnnaTheHank



Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Gen, Original Character(s), Post-Canon, Time Travel, sequel of sorts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2020-04-08 03:09:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19098538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnaTheHank/pseuds/AnnaTheHank
Summary: In 1935 Sir Robert Victor Goddard caught a glimpse of the future as he was flying his plane. 84 years later, his granddaughter, a seasoned veteran of time travel, goes back a week to prevent a catastrophe. She enlists the aid of Aziraphale and Crowley, only they're not sure what it is they're stopping, and whether or not it's a good idea.Oh, and heaven's back claiming that Aziraphale is going around performing a great deal of unnecessary and ridiculous miracles. Which he certainly, totally, in any way, shape or form, isn't.-"You two witnessed little children killing the four horsemen, saw satan literally rise up from hell, managed to swap bodies, and saw your book store and your Bently returned from the dead, but a time traveler is, what, weird?"





	1. Somewhere is the Promise of an Uncharted Trail

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! Thanks for dropping by. I'm still getting a feel for the characters, so please be gentle with their voices. Feel free to point out places that feel really OOC for them, in a kind and gentle way of course, as I am trying to get them right, sort of anyway.

**Thursday, November 21st, 2019- 1 Day Left- Tadfield**

Had Anathema read The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, pt 2 instead of burning it in a fire, she would have seen something that said, in not so many words, ‘A young woman will be struck by lightning and following a series of strange events would be sent back in time to prevent catastrophe’. But she did burn the book, as Agnes Nutter had correctly predicted, and so it came as a surprise to her when, walking hand in hand with Newt on a lovely evening stroll, a young woman chased a cat into the street, and was immediately struck by a crack of lightning accompanied by a loud crash of thunder that seemed to shake the very street they were on (despite the fact that there wasn’t a cloud or ion charge in sight).

Not knowing that this is exactly what they were supposed to do, Anathema and Newt ran directly to the woman’s aide. Only, as they approached, they noticed that the woman in question was perfectly fine. Better than fine, in fact. She allowed Newt to help her to her feet but there wasn’t a scratch on her. She blinked, hazel eyes shimmering a bit, and brushed her long, dark hair out of her face.

“Have you two seen a cat run by here?” she asked. 

The two took a moment to stare at her in shock. “I...are you alright?” Anathema asked, certain that the blow must have damaged the woman’s brain in some way.

“Yes, it’s just, he doesn’t have his collar on cause I was giving him a bath but he ran out on me and now I’m worried he’ll get lost.” The woman stood on her toes and looked around the little intersection. 

“You were struck by lightning,” Newt told her, as if that was the kind of thing you had to tell someone.

“Oh yes, that,” the woman said. She bit her lip and shrugged. “Happens all the time, I’m afraid. You learn to get used to it.”

Newt and Anathema shared a glance, both with furrowed eyebrows and slight frowns. It wasn’t often someone got struck by lightning, and it was even less often that it happened on several occasions. The concept of someone getting so used to being struck by lightning that they didn’t even react to it was absurd.

“Oh! There he is! Thanks!” the woman waved to them as she ran off, chasing the cat around the corner and down the next street.

“That was…” Newt started.

“Odd,” Anathema finished. “Definitely odd.”

“You don’t think this has anything to do with the other week, do you?” Newt asked.

Anathema shrugged. “I wouldn’t doubt it.” And it felt strange, at that moment, to not know. She knew, of course, that something about this woman and her lightning rod spine was somewhere in that book she had burned away. She had never always known 100% what was going to happen, but she usually had a clue, she usually knew when the big stuff was coming.

It was an unsettling feeling, to say the least, but it lessened when Newt grabbed her hand and they continued walking. It was just something she was going to have to learn to get used to.

 

**Monday, November 18th, 2019- 5 Days Left - Aziraphale’s Bookshop**

There was somebody in his kitchen and that was a very odd thing because nobody was ever in his kitchen, not even him. Aziraphale had first heard something clunking about in there when he was dusting some of his books. He had wandered over and was now standing in the doorway, staring at the young woman who was sitting at the little table there and shoveling a spoonful of cereal into her mouth.

Aziraphale scratched his head, looked around him, and then cleared his throat. The woman’s head snapped over to him, her long, dark hair flowing with the motions. “Can I help you?” Aziraphale asked.

The woman took a big swallow and wiped her mouth on the back of her hand, droplets of milk sticking to her skin. “It’s more how I can help you,” she said. She stuck out her hand, the one with the milk on it, and introduced herself. “Victoria Goddard,” she said. “Time Traveler.”

Aziraphale fidgeted, staring at the strange woman, his fingers opening and closing in disgust at the thought of touching that hand. Victoria just shrugged and pulled it back, resuming her meal.

Aziraphale was at a complete loss. How this woman had even gotten in with the locked doors was one thing. Why she was sitting at his table eating cereal he never bought as if it was the most natural thing in the world was another. He had no idea what to make of all this so he went to go call someone who might.

“Oh don’t bother,” Victoria called after him as he walked down the hall. “He’s already on his way.”

Aziraphale turned on his heel and stuck his head around the corner. “What?”

“Crowley,” she said. “He’ll be here any second.”

And right on cue, there was a knock on Aziraphale’s door. Aziraphale startled and headed for the door. Crowley really was the only one who ignored his closed sign. And there he was, right as Victoria Goddard had said.

Only he wasn’t alone.

Only Victoria Goddard was standing right next to him, struggling to put a book away into her purse.

“Oh, finally,” she said, forcing her way in. Aziraphale and Crowley just watched her, Aziraphale in complete confusion and denial and Crowley impressed with this human’s level of rudeness and tact. “I need this book.” She pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and shoved it in Aziraphale’s face.

“I, uh,” Aziraphale took the note, didn’t read it, and handed it back. “I don’t have it.”

“What?”

“He said he doesn’t have it,” Crowley told her. “So scram.”

“No, but my friend said you did!” Victoria said, looking between the two of them, a fire in her hazel eyes. “She saw it here.”

Aziraphale shook his head a little, shrugged, and tried to smile. “Sold it recently, I’m afraid.”

Victoria took a controlled breath and pushed her way outside, mumbling “fucking useless,” under her breath.

“I like the cheek of that one,” Crowley said, watching her storm down the street.

Aziraphale ignored him, rushing back to the kitchen. Victoria was still sitting at the table, eating. She noticed him and gave him a little finger wave. He felt like he was going to faint.

Aziraphale pulled out the nearest chair and sat down, staring at this impossible person sitting across from him. 

Crowley sauntered his way in, taking off his sunglasses and saying, “hey, angel, what’s wrong with y-” he stopped, spotting the girl at the table who gave him the same wave. Crowley looked between her and the front door, pointing between them. “Weren’t you just-”

“Yes,” she interrupted. “I’m Victoria Goddard. Time Traveler.”

“I have a time traveler in my kitchen,” Aziraphale said, eyes wide and sunken a bit.

“A time traveler?” Crowley asked.

Victoria sighed and rolled her eyes. “Honestly. You two witnessed little children killing the four horsemen, saw satan literally rise up from hell, managed to swap bodies, and saw your book store and your Bently returned from the dead, but a time traveler is, what, weird?”

Aziraphale blinked at her. “Well, a little.”

Victoria took a deep breath, exhaling it forcefully through her nose. “Look, I really don’t have the time to explain it to you and honestly, I’m a little disappointed. I thought a couple of angels would get the gist of it quicker than this.”

“Technically I’m a demon,” Crowley said, smirking at her a bit. 

She gave him a deadpan look, glanced at her watch, then stood up. “We have to go. There’s somewhere you need to be.” Then she snapped her fingers, the bowl on the table disappearing in a little blue spark, and walked out into the shop.

Aziraphale and Crowley exchanged a glance.

“I know I said I liked the cheek of her, but she’s already getting on my nerves.”

Aziraphale nodded his head in agreement.

“Chop chop, boys,” Victoria called from the shop. “We haven’t got all millenium!”


	2. The sanctity of motion

**Wednesday, November 20th, 2019 - 2 days Left- Hogback Wood**

It had been a fairly lovely afternoon. A little chilly, as was expected of the late November air, but not so chilly that Adam and his friends couldn’t enjoy playing outside. They had been playing a rousing game of Piggy in the Middle, with Adam, Pepper, and Brian tossing a ball around while Wensleydale and Dog jumped about trying to catch it.

They were having a good time until Dog stopped abruptly, Wensley tripping over him and falling to the ground.

“What’s wrong with Dog?” Pepper asked. The dog was standing at high alert, looking off into the woods, a growl held in the back of his throat.

“I don’t know.” Adam walked up and knelt down next to his pet. “What’s wrong, boy?”

“Actually,” Wensley said as Brian helped him to his feet, “I was the one who fell over.”

Dog started to bark, a deep warning to whatever it was he was sensing. The children all looked off in the direction the dog was looking, scanning the tree lines for something, a monster perhaps.

But it wasn’t a monster that stepped into view. It was a woman. A tall woman with dark hair and almost a type of glow about her skin. Dog ran up, standing between this intruder and the children. He barked his deep warning, daring the human to take another step.

“Dog, stop that,” Adam ordered, sensing no more danger from this woman than he did from Pepper. “Sorry,” he said to her, “he’s not usually like this.”

“Oh, that’s alright,” she told him. “It’s just the time travel.”

The children all blinked at her with wide stares and Dog downgraded his threat to a growl.

“Did you say time travel?” Brian asked.

“That’s right,” she told them. “It tends to leave a bit of a smell, for lack of a better word. Only dogs can pick up on it. It tends not to agree with them.”

“Actually, time travel isn’t real,” Wensley informed her.

She smiled softly at them. “How can you be so sure?”

“Well, cause it’s not,” Pepper agreed. “Otherwise people would be doing it all the time.”

“Ah, but they are,” the woman suggested.

The kids shared a look among themselves. Clearly, this woman was a bit crazy, and perhaps that was what Dog was picking up on. 

“If you’re a time traveler,” Adam said, “why not prove it?’

“Prove it?” The woman laughed. “I don’t have to prove anything to a group of children playing in a forest.”

Brian shrugged. “So I guess you can’t do it then.”

The woman rolled her eyes, placed her hands on her hips, and huffed out a breath of air. The children looked at her expectantly. “Alright, fine,” she said.

The woman closed her eyes, stilled her body, and in the blink of an eye, she was gone. The four gasped, and Dog finally settled down. 

“She’s gone,” Wensley said.

“Some trick,” Brian said.

“You don’t think she really…” Pepper suggested.

Adam shrugged. 

“Yoo-hoo.”

They all spun around, Dog barking and bounding over to the other side of them. The woman was in their fort, sitting cross-legged on the little throne, waving at them with her fingers.

“She actually did it,” Wensley whispered.

The woman chuckled and stood up, stretching a bit. “Well, that was fun. You kids have a good evening now.” 

None of them could think of a thing to say as she left, crunching on leaves as she went.

 

**Monday, November 18th, 2019- 5 Days Left - The Bently**

Crowley and Aziraphale followed Victoria out onto the street. She didn’t even bother looking both ways before she bounded across the street. 

“Oi!” Crowley said, chasing after her as she opened the door to his car, moving the seats around so she could climb into the back. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“What?” Victoria asked. “It’s faster than walking, and we have to be there on time.” She glanced at her watch and huffed out a breath. “We’re cutting it close.” She leaned forward, looking past Crowley at Aziraphale who was still standing by the door. “You comin’?”

Aziraphale’s hands fidgeted together as he crossed the street to them. “Just what is this all about?”

“Just get in,” Victoria said, settling back into her seat. “And you,” she looked at Crowley, “step on it.”

“I don’t take orders,” Crowley sneered at her. “Now get out of my car before I drag you out.”

Victoria sighed. “Look, I promise I will explain everything on the way but we really must get a move on.”

Crowley looked back at Aziraphale who gave him a little shrug and head shake, eyes expressing curiosity. Crowley groaned and rolled his head back before he gave in and went around to the driver’s side. 

“So,” Aziraphale started once Crowley had pulled away from the curve. “You’re from the future?”

“Yes,” Victoria told him. She kept glancing between her watch and the street. “Left here,” she instructed, and, growling a bit through clenched teeth, Crowley turned.

“What year?” Aziraphale asked.

“Saturday.”

“Wait.” Crowley glanced at her in the rear-view mirror. “This Saturday?”

“That’s the one. Another left.”

“So...you’ve only gone back in time a few days?” Aziraphale asked.

“Yeah. Most I can do is a week at a time.” Crowley chuckled at that and she glared over at him. “More than you can do.”

“So why did you come back?” Aziraphale asked, attempting to dissolve the brewing fight between the two of them.

“Let’s just say...someone is going to die. And we really don’t want that to happen. Right up there.”

The tires of the Bently squealed a bit as Crowley turned. “Who’s ‘we’?” he asked.

“Us,” Victoria told him. “You, me, Aziraphale. Especially Aziraphale.”

“It's someone we know, then?” Aziraphale said.

“You could say that.” She leaned up and patted on the seat. “Oh, oh, left here, turn left here.”

Crowley spun the wheel to the left and the car sped down the street. On the side of the road, a woman with dark hair was about to step off, but she jumped back, hand on her chest as the car drove past. Victoria let out a sigh and sank back into the seat. 

“Where exactly am I going?” Crowley asked her.

“Huh? Oh, uh, I don’t know. Where were you going?”

“You don’t know?” Aziraphale asked.

Victoria shrugged. “You were going to go somewhere, right?” she asked, looking over at Crowley. 

Crowley glanced between the two of them. “Just going to suggest a lunch is all,” he said, shrugging a bit.

“Alright, well, let’s just go to lunch, then.”

“Alright, hold on.” Crowley slammed on the brakes and the three shifted forward as the car jerked to a stop. He turned around in his seat. “What was all that about?”

“Look, certain things have to happen to ensure that I go back in time,” she said. “Otherwise I don’t.”

“That’s just basic logic,” Crowley mumbled.

“My goal, yes, is to try and stop this death, but I can’t do it unless I go back. So, my number one concern has to be ensuring that I do.”

“Can’t you…” Aziraphale licked his lips a bit, thinking. “Can’t you just tell yourself to go back in time?”

Victoria stared at him with a face that was equal parts bored and angry. “I can’t even begin to explain to you how bad of an idea that is.”

“Right. Well.” Aziraphale turned back around in his seat and sat up straight. 

“So how do we stop this death?” Crowley asked.

“I’m working on it, don’t worry. For now, just go about your normal day as if I’m not here.”

“Oh, nothing about this is normal.”

“Just drive.”


	3. Time Becomes the Sediment that Drifts to Algae

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: shoveling all my new GO fic ideas into a big pile  
> My OC: drowning 
> 
> anyway, thanks for reading and sticking with my time travel gal! Hopefully my new ideas will slow for a lil bit so I can get more of this out 😂

**Monday, November 18th, 2019- 5 Days Left - Lunch**

Victoria groaned and leaned her head against the table, her half-eaten sandwich left ignored to the side. Crowley smirked at her. He, too, was slightly annoyed by Aziraphale’s constant stream of questions, but he was also enjoying watching the young woman suffer.

“So, your grandfather was a time traveler?” Aziraphale asked, taking a bite of his own sandwich.

“He traveled once,” Victoria mumbled, holding up a finger. “Accidentally.”

“How exactly does one accidentally time travel?” Crowley asked, leaning back in his seat more.

Victoria’s head popped up, giving him a glare that said ‘oh not you, too’. “Anyone can time travel,” she explained. “It just takes practice and effort. However, you can speed up the process if your body is under the right stress conditions.”

Aziraphale held up a hand as he finished chewing, wiping his mouth dainty on his napkin. “Anyone?” he asked. “Even us?”

“Especially you,” Victoria said. “I mean, you lot did invent it.”

“We...invented time travel?” Aziraphale glanced over at Crowley. “I don’t remember that at all.”

Crowley shook his head a bit with a slight frown. The more the woman before them talked, the more he was convinced she was crazy.

Victoria glanced at her watch, looked out the window, and tapped her finger on the table. This was the first time that Crowley really bothered to get a look at her, her watch specifically.

“Hey!” he said, reaching out and grabbing her arm. She didn’t really struggle as he unclipped it and pulled it to himself. 

Aziraphale leaned over and studied it with him. Crowley looked at his own watch. Then looked at her watch, which was his watch. They both looked up at her.

“This is my watch,” he told her.

“Yes, I know.”

“Well...how did you get it?”

“Ripped it off your dead body.”

“What?” This Aziraphale and Crowley said in unison.

Victoria chuckled. “Only joking, jeez. You gave it to me, obviously.”

“We’ve met before?” Crowley asked, slowly reaching out to hand her the watch back.

Victoria raised an eyebrow at them. “I mean, you two did just meet me in the shop not but a few minutes ago.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t give you my watch then.” Crowley sneered.

Victoria looked at the time as she put her watch back on then huffed and sank down in her chair. “Don’t suppose it matters,” she sort of whispered. “Something’s not right.”

“What’s not right?” Aziraphale asked, he sat up straight, looked around the restaurant as if he could spot evil or something. 

“It’s late.” Victoria looked out the window, her face falling a bit. She shook her head slightly. “I’ve only been here a few minutes,” she said. “What could I have done already?”

Crowley opened his mouth to speak but then it arrived. A shaking of the ground, plates and glasses shattering to the ground, people dropping to the floor in panic. It was less an earthquake and more a wave, a sudden, intense, shaking that lasted all but three seconds before it passed.

Crowley and Aziraphale looked at each other and the mess of the restaurant they were in with wide eyes.

“Was that an earthquake?” Aziraphale asked. 

“No,” Victoria said. She was standing up a bit, hands firmly planted on the table as she scanned the street of confused people. She frowned, not finding what she was looking for, and sat back down. “A demon, actually. Right powerful one I suspect.”

“A demon?” Crowley asked. His mind raced with who it could be and why they were here. Were they coming back for him? Had their little plan already burned away?

“And he’s important?” Aziraphale asked. “This demon? He’s involved in this murder?”

“Pretty sure he does it actually?”

“Pretty sure?” Crowley turned raised eyebrows to her. “You don’t actually know?”

Aziraphale stared at her with a similar expression.

“Alright, well, I wasn’t really there when the actual killing bit happened,” she confessed. “But judging by the way the one in question died, pretty sure it’s a demon.”

“How did they die?” Aziraphale asked. 

Victoria looked him up and down, glanced at Crowley and bit her lip. “Best you don’t know for now.”

Sirens filled the air as emergency vehicles raced around the area for that which was damaged by the shockwave. “We should probably go,” Crowley suggested, watching the scene outside.

The others agreed and they got up to leave, setting money down on the table for their meal. As they left, they noticed that in the booth next to the door there was a young girl crying in her mother’s arm as other fretted over her. She was holding her wrist close and it was clear that she had broken it.

Aziraphale looked around to make sure that no one was watching before he went to heal it but found someone, rather, Victoria, had beaten him to it. She waved her hand in the vague direction of the girl and her tears stilled as she stared down at the no longer broken wrist.

Crowley and Aziraphale exchanged a glance as she strode out onto the street. They hadn’t really been paying all that much attention to the whole disappearing cereal bit, but this was a little harder to ignore.

“Hey!” Crowley called after her, following her out. She spun around on the sidewalk to look up at them, people rushing past. Crowley pointed a finger at her. “Are you an angel?”

Victoria pursed her lips and looked up to the side. “I mean...I guess, technically? I mean, I’m human, but I do have holy divinity in me.”

Aziraphale stumbled down the steps a bit. “That’s not possible,” he stuttered.

“Oh, but it is. I mean, it has literally happened. So it must be.”

Aziraphale swallowed hard and looked her up and down, as if trying to see how it could work. “I don’t suppose...I mean...how?”

“Best not to go into it,” Victoria said, scrunching up her nose a bit. 

“But...but it doesn’t make any sense,” Aziraphale quasi hissed. Crowley smiled at him a bit.

“It doesn’t have to make sense,” Victoria hissed back. 

“But-”

“Just drop it, angel,” Crowley said, shaking his head. “She’s just as stubborn as you are.”

“Thank you,” Victoria said. She turned and headed back to the car. 

Aziraphale stared at her for a moment, almost starting to say something again and again. Crowley patted him on the back and sauntered off to the car. 

“More stressful than Armageddon,” Aziraphale whispered before getting after them.

 

**Thursday, November 21st, 2019- 1 Day Left- The Park**

“Here,” Crowley said, unclasping his watch and handing it over to the young woman with the dark hair. 

She stared at it with a blank face, then looked up at him. “Why?”

“You’ll need it,” Crowley said. He shrugged and looked off to the side. “Important to keep track of things, you know.”

The woman took the watch from him, studied it, put it on her wrist. “Uh. Thanks, I guess?”

“Look, just, fucking get it right this time okay?”

The woman looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. “Uh. Sure.”

Crowley nodded and slithered off into the night. The woman looked down at the watch and sighed. She thought back to all the weird things that had happened to her over the last week and started making notes of when they had happened.


	4. Where the world would be so bright that it could make us all go blind

**Monday, November 18th, 2019- 5 Days Left - Bookshop**

The little bell above the door rang out as the three of them entered the shop. Victoria wandered off, browsing through the shelves, running her fingers along all the spines of the books. 

“So what happens next?” Aziraphale asked, taking his coat off and hanging it up.

“Nothing for today,” Victoria mumbled. “Far as I know anyway.” She glanced back at them. “Not sure what it is you two do alone.”

“You know,” Crowley said, sauntering up to her. “We might be able to help more if you actually told us what’s going on.”

“Can’t,” Victoria said. She leaned back a bit, biting her lip as she browsed the books. 

“Well, why not?” Aziraphale asked, huffing out a held breath. “Does it have anything to do with a paradox or something?”

“Not quite. More of a I’m already done answering your questions and all it’ll do is provide more kind of thing.”

Crowley and Aziraphale exchanged a glass. Aziraphale glanced towards the back room and Crowley nodded. The two slipped away, unnoticed by Victoria, who had pulled a book off the shelf and was leafing through it.

“Please tell me you’re just as confused as I am,” Aziraphale said, pulling Crowley around the corner and glancing over at the woman. 

“Probably more,” Crowley grumbled. 

“I mean,” Aziraphale sighed. “Who do you suppose it is? This person who’s going to die?” Aziraphale had an idea, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to say it out loud. 

“Not sure,” Crowley said. “But apparently you’re not going to like it and a demon did it.”

Aziraphale gulped and Crowley furrowed his eyebrows at him.

“What?” Crowley asked.

Aziraphale shook his head. “Oh, nothing. Just was hoping for a bit more breathing room before everything came back up again.”

Crowley nodded. “Well, who do you know that demons want to kill?”

 _iOnly you_ , Aziraphale thought, though he didn’t say. He just cleared his throat and looked around. “Well, perhaps they’re going after another angel.”

Crowley nodded. “That seems likely. Would cause a whole bit of trouble if they did. Who else is down here other than you?”

Aziraphale shook his head. “Not sure.” He twitched a smile at Crowley. “I’ll have to check.”

Victoria called out from the other room, “You fucking liar!” She stormed into the back room, holding a book in her hand and shaking it at them. “You said you didn’t have it?”

Aziraphale looked at her with a wide stare then chuckled nervously. “Must have been mistaken,” he said.

Victoria glared at him. “I’m taking this,” she said, pulling it close to her chest. She pointed a finger at him, opened her mouth, then closed it again, growling a bit, before she turned and left them alone again.

Crowley watched her leave then turned back to face Aziraphale. “Maybe there’s someone else we can get to save this person.”

Aziraphale looked over at Crowley with worry. “Perhaps you’re right. If only we knew who, right?” He chuckled again, trying to figure out the best way to keep a close eye on the demon without letting on that’s what he was doing.

 

**Monday, November 18th, 2019- 5 Days Left - Victoria’s apartment**

Victoria held the phone up to her ear, squeezing it between her shoulder and her face. “What days?” She asked, grabbing a pen and a notepad. “Wednesday and Thursday…” She scribbled it down on a piece of paper. “Sure thing, Gram...Yes, I’ll make sure he takes his medicine and gets food...do cats normally need baths? Don’t they bathe themselves?”

There was a ping from Victoria’s phone and she pulled it away so she could look at the screen. “Okay, Gram. I gotta go but I'll call you back.” She hung up and smiled at the text her friend had sent her. Apparently, some bookshop in the city had the book she needed to finish up her essay.

She grabbed her bag and raced out of the apartment, stopping promptly when a bolt of lightning hit her, sending her spiraling to the floor. She sighed, getting to her feet and looking around. Luckily no one was around. They usually made such a fuss about it. Lord knows her parents had. Her father had been worried that maybe it was the time travel, that the genetic effects of it were causing something strange to go on.

They had been to several doctors, but no one could explain why she was constantly struck by lightning nor why it didn’t seem to harm her in any way. One doctor even went so far as to assume it was having a positive impact on her. After the fifth one had nothing new to say, the family decided that as long as it wasn’t hurting her it was best to leave it alone. 

Victoria rubbed at her head and frowned as she walked to the bus stop. They had been getting closer and closer together. It used to be a few times a year, now it was up to once a week. She wondered what would happen when it was daily, hourly, by the minute. Would there be a time when she was just always being struck by lightning? It never seemed to happen when she was inside, maybe she could avoid it altogether.

The bus pulled up to the stop ahead of her and Victoria shook the thoughts from her mind, racing to get there on time.


	5. Countless Links Within Some Silent Chain

**Tuesday, November 19th, 2019- 4 Days Left - Bookshop/Supermarket**

Aziraphale was quite proud of himself. He had convinced Crowley to spend the night keeping an eye on Victoria while Aziraphale did some sneaky searching to see if any other angels were on Earth. He spent the night in his backroom, doing his work and watching Crowley, who was sitting in one of the large armchairs watching Victoria, who was sleeping on one of the couches. 

As it turned out, there were four other angels on Earth, and another two set to come down by the end of the week. Unfortunately for Aziraphale's hypothesis, none of them were tasked with jobs in England.

Aziraphale hadn’t expected much to happen that night. But he knew that this murder happened before Saturday. He had to keep a close eye on things until then and he knew he wouldn’t fully rest until the day had passed. He hoped, just a little, that simply knowing about what was going to happen would help prevent it.

At some point during the night, Crowley had fallen asleep. Aziraphale walked into the main room of the shop, stretching a bit from the night of sitting. He smiled fondly at the demon, who had pulled his legs up and was curled into the chair, glasses slightly askew as he slept. It had been a tiring day, after all, and Aziraphale really couldn’t blame him.

Aziraphale turned around to look at Victoria. Except she wasn’t there. The blanket Aziraphale had given her was crumpled up to the side, and the book she had been reading that night was laying on the floor. Aziraphale would have given her a piece of his mind about leaving books on the floor if it wasn’t for her startling him by emerging from the kitchen declaring, “We need to go shopping.”

“Shopping?” Crowley asked. Aziraphale hopped again and turned his attention to the demon, who was now standing by the chair completely put together.

“Yeah.” Victoria looked pointedly at Aziraphale. “You have no food in here.”

“We eat out a lot,” Crowley murmured.

“Shopping sounds like a superb idea,” Aziraphale said, beaming over at Crowley. “Why, you could drive.”

“Why go to some store when all three of us here can just miracle up any food we’d want?”

Victoria’s eyes bounced back and forth between the two of them.

“It’s part of the experience,” Aziraphale said.

“The experience?”

Aziraphale nodded, his head bouncing a little too fast to be normal. “Oh, yes. We could get ingredients and then try cooking. To calm our nerves.”

“Cooking?” Crowley asked. “To calm our nerves?”

“Come along then,” Aziraphale said, a little bounce in his step as he made his way to the door.

Crowley and Victoria looked at each other. Crowley made a face and held a hand out to the door, bowing slightly at the waist. Victoria rolled her eyes at him and followed Aziraphale outside.

-

The market was surprisingly busy for a Tuesday late morning. It was mostly elderly people, as Aziraphale would come to find out that Tuesday was senior discount day. (Crowley would tell him to try and get a discount considering they were, actually, quite old. It wouldn’t work). 

“I’m, uh, gonna go buy some stuff,” Victoria said, waving at them and running off into the store. She had miracled herself a new outfit that morning, and if Crowley wasn’t highly suspicious of her, he might have appreciated her sense of style.

“Well, what shall we make then?” Aziraphale asked, grabbing a little shopping cart from beside the door.

Crowley shrugged. “Doesn't matter.”

“You should put a little bit of thought into it,” Aziraphale said, leading Crowley down the first aisle. “Help take your mind off other things.”

“Our minds should be on other things,” Crowley said, running his hand lazily over the bags and cans on the shelf.

“It just might be nice to have a calm and quiet afternoon is all.”

“Nothing about this week is going to be calm or quiet.”

Aziraphale sighed and kept walking, browsing the shelves, humming to himself as he thought about what to make. Crowley busied himself by taking the price stickers off the shelves and swapping them around. He chuckled to himself. Just imagine, he thought, all the angry customers thinking they’d be spending less on their groceries only to get upset at the cashier when they refuted their claims. It would be glorious.

Victoria rounded the corner, one hand on her chin as she browsed the shelf full of cookies.

“Shouldn’t eat those,” Crowley mumbled, still switching about price tags. 

“I’m sorry?” Victoria asked.

“Too much sugar,” Crowley said. “Bad for your health.”

“Uh...okay.”

Crowley took a step back and studied his handiwork with a smirk. “You think Aziraphale is acting strange this morning?” he asked, as if Victoria knew the angel as well as he did. 

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I think you have me confused with someone else.”

Crowley spun around and took a good look at her. She was wearing different clothes than before, and her wrist was missing one certain, familiar watch.

“Sorry,” Crowley said, looking up the aisle for Aziraphale, who wasn’t there. “Uh, you’re right. Wrong person, sorry.”

Victoria gave him a look and a tight smile, before scurrying away to the next aisle. Crowley sighed and leaned against the shelves.

“Gosh,” Victoria, the right Victoria, said, appearing in the aisle on the other end. “I got embarrassed just watching that.”

“You could have told us you were going to be here,” Crowley hissed.

“I can’t,” she said. “It has to appear perfectly natural that you simply ran into me.”

“What about that was natural?”

“Well,” Victoria shrugged. “It’s pretty on par with how I remember it going so…”

Crowley grimaced at her and reached his hands out like he was going to strangle her. Luckily, Aziraphale chose that moment to return, a bright smile on his face as he presented his basket to them.

“I’m going to make a souffle,” he announced.

“Quite the task for a first-time baker,” Victoria said.

“Oh, well,” Aziraphale looked down and blushed a bit. “I have dabbled in it a bit.”

“Well, come on then, best get started soon.” She walked off towards the check-out and Crowley grabbed Aziraphale’s arm, pulling him to a slower walk.

“I don’t think I’m gonna last the week with her,” he mumbled.

“Don’t say things like that!” Aziraphale practically cried out.

Crowley leaned back a bit, giving him a look. That was odd. “I’m just saying, she’s a nuisance.”

“She’s only trying to help us,” Aziraphale said, turning away a bit as if what he had said earlier was uncalled for. 

“If we can believe anything she says.”

“She’s done a dandy job of proving it so far.” Aziraphale and Crowley reached the check-out, dropping their voices to a whisper as Victoria stood to the side, leafing through a magazine.

“What if she didn’t come back to save someone,” Crowley suggested, grabbing the ingredients from Aziraphale’s basket and placing them on the belt. “What if the first attempt failed and she’s here to make sure it succeeds this time.”

“Oh.” Aziraphale looked back at the woman. “Oh, no I don’t think that’s true.”

“Something to think about, at least,” Crowley said. “We have to keep a close eye on her.”

 

**Wednesday, November 20th, 2019 - 2 days Left- The Park**

Victoria sighed with content, carrying her coffee through the park, adjusting the bag on her back. She could have just taken the bus closest to her home, but she enjoyed the walk through the path that led her to the stop on the other side of town. Plus, she got to see the most wonderful things happen there. Last year she had witnessed an entire group of people trying to get a cat out of a tree before it jumped on one of their faces. It had been hysterical.

What she saw that day, however, topped everything else. It was a funny little thing. There was a man standing to the side, wearing a very obvious fake mustache (it didn’t even match his normal hair color). And another man, an awfully familiar man, was yelling at him. 

Victoria gasped, as did the small crowd that had gathered around them, when the second man reached out and pulled the mustache off the first one. Her gasp turned to soft laughter as the first man went about trying to pretend it really was indeed a fake mustache. 

No one bought it.

Victoria shook her head at them and went on her way, didn’t want to miss the bus, of course. But as she walked away she couldn’t shake that feeling of almost knowing that second man. It was like she had seen him a few times before Never enough to make a full impression, but just enough to create a hint of recognition.


	6. To the East I Might Stumble (To the West I Would Crawl)

**Tuesday, November 19th, 2019- 4 Days Left - Bookshop and Park**

Victoria was siting at the table, reading the book she had taken from Aziraphale, writing notes in a notebook she had miracled up the night before. Aziraphale was bustling about the kitchen, cleaning up the mess he made from cooking. Crowley was sitting opposite Victoria, studying her.

“Oi,” Crowley said. Victoria looked up at him with a scowl. “If you really do have a holy divinity in you, why didn’t you just miracle the book you needed up?”

Victoria rolled her eyes. “I didn’t have it until recently.”

“And-and how did you get it exactly?” Aziraphale asked. He wiped his hands on his apron and peaked in the oven, smiling at the souffle dish.

“You probably don’t want to know,” she said.

“Oh we really, really do,” Crowley said, returning her scowl back at her.

Victoria rolled her eyes at him. “It’s complicated. Besides, you’ll find out soon enough.”

“But why can’t you just tell us?” Aziraphale stomped his foot softly. “Surely the more we know the more we can help.”

“I don’t really need your help,” Victoria told him. “I just need you two to be where you need to be to make sure I go back. I got the rest.”

“But we could help.” Aziraphale sat down between them. He placed a hand on Victoria’s arm. “You wouldn’t have to figure everything out on your own, you know.” He gave her his best soft look.

“Yeah,” she said slowly. “Uh, no offense, but the more you know the more chance you have to mess things up.”

Aziraphale frowned and removed his hand. 

“So how come you can only go back a week at a time?” Crowley asked, shifting his body in his seat a bit.

Victoria took a controlled breath and made a show of closing her book. “It takes a lot of energy. If I tried to go back farther I’d probably hurt myself.”

“Yeah, but couldn’t you like go back, and then go back again. And keep going?”

“I can’t go back again until I’ve caught up with my original time.”

“Sounds like an excuse to me,” Crowley said, crossing his legs.

“It’s not an excuse! It’s physics!”

“Sure it is.”

The oven binged and Aziraphale leaped up, leaving the two to bicker at the table. He put on an oven mitt and reached in ad pulled the souffle out, frowning. “Oh dear,” he said, setting it down. “I was sure I did it right.” He hummed and looked back at his recipe book.

Crowley and Victoria studied the deflated mess. 

“You could just miracle it back to life,” Victoria suggested. 

“We’re not doing that,” Crowley explained.

“Just the minimum,” Aziraphale added. “To be safe.”

“Ah.” Victoria snapped her fingers and the souffle popped back to perfect condition.

“Oh!” Aziraphale said, spotting it. He spun around and beamed at her. “Thank you!” Crowley frowned.

-

After a lunch of perfect souffle, Victoria announced that they had to go to the park. She once more would not tell them why, but Aziraphale jumped on the opportunity, dragging Crowley along as he grumbled. 

“Why are we here?” Crowley asked, shoving his hands in his pocket as they walked around. 

“See that guy over there?” Victoria said, pointing to a man in a grey t-shirt standing by the lake. 

“Yeah.” Crowley shrugged.

“Oh! Does he have something to do with this?” Aziraphale asked.

Victoria nodded. “It’s possible. See, on this day in my time I saw you,” she looked at Crowley, “give him this.” She waved her arm and was holding a pineapple. She handed it to him.

Crowley took it, giving it a look over with a raised eyebrow. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“Why?”

Victoria shrugged. “Was kind of hoping something interesting would happen leading up to it but I guess not. All I know is what I saw.”

Crowley grimace. He looked to Aziraphale.

“Best not to mess with time,” Aziraphale said, giving him a pitiful look.

Crowley groaned and spun on his heel, stalking over to the man.

Victoria stifled a chuckle. “Oh my god, he’s actually doing it.”

Aziraphale looked to her. “You mean...you mean he never did!?”

Victoria shook her head, unable to keep the laughter out. “I was just curious if I could get him to do it,” she said. “I never thought he actually would.”

Aziraphale looked back to Crowley, with all the intent to stop him, but it was too late. Crowley was already beat red, handing the man the pineapple and trying to physically escape into his coat.

“Really,” he said, trying to hide a smile. “That was very cruel.”

Victoria, still laughing, turned to the side to catch her breath. She caught the image of a man. An awfully out of place looking man. He was wearing a long trench coat and his hair was a white mess. He stared at them with dark eyes. He noticed Victoria watching him and made a very bad display of pretending like he was watching them. 

Victoria pursed her lips, sobering up as Crowley returned to them.

“That better have been something fucking important,” he mumbled, glaring at Victoria.

“I’m sure it was,” Aziraphale said, patting him on the arm. “Right?”

“Huh?” Victoria looked back at them. Looked back at where the man was. Saw he was gone. “Uh, yeah. Super important.”

 

**Monday, November 18th, 2019- 5 Days Left - Outside the Bookshop**

Victoria huffed, wrapping her coat around her as it drizzle slightly. A wasted trip to this side of town, she figured. No book at the shop. Favorite coffee stand closed for the day. That strange earthquake thing. And now rain on her walk home cause the buses were down. She grumbled, thought about ways to take her frustrations out.

“Excuse me, miss.” 

The figure that spoke to her was weird. It was a tall, pale man who wore a long trench coat and had a mop of white hair on his head. He spoke slowly, almost as if he had trouble saying the words. There was something off about him, but Victoria really couldn't place it.

Victoria stopped before him, looking across the street to see if maybe she could run across and get out of his reach.

“I’m looking for a book shop,” he said, smiling a strange, tight smile.

“Closest one’s over there,” Victoria said, pointing behind her at the disappointment. “Good luck, though. Worst shop I’ve ever seen.”

The ‘man’ looked up at the building, squinting through the rain. “Ah yes. That’s the place. Thank you.”

Victoria nodded at him and crossed the street at a normal pace. She glanced over her shoulder as she walked away. The man was standing in the alcove of another store. He didn’t move, just stood there and watched the book store.

Victoria shook her head and kept walking. Maybe he was planning a caper, she thought. Probably the only way to get anything from that place.

**Author's Note:**

> Also, I've made a discord for Good Omens fic writers and readers so feel free to join if you're interested <3  
> https://discord.gg/ApAEX9Q


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